Police sweep through village after attack kills pilot

Hundreds of police swarmed through a southern Afghan village, searching house-to-house for an assailant who sprayed a US company's helicopter with gunfire, killing the Australian pilot and wounding three passengers.

Police arrested 30 suspected Taliban members and seized five AK-47 assault rifles in Thaloqan village, about 60 kilometres south-west of the provincial capital, Kandahar, said a police official, General Salim Khan.

Scores of US soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division were also helping in the hunt, said coalition military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty. He mentioned no arrests.

The attack happened on Sunday when three foreigners and an Afghan interpreter were travelling in the helicopter to inspect the construction of a clinic in the village.

"The helicopter was on the ground getting ready to take off," Lieutenant Colonel Hilferty told a press conference in Kabul. "A crowd of people gathered ... one person stepped out of the crowd with an AK-47 [assault rifle] and fired 20 to 30 shots."

The helicopter's Australian pilot Mark Burdorf, 45, was killed. An American female construction superviser and a British security guard were seriously wounded. The Afghan escaped with minor injuries and was treated at the scene. Officials would not divulge their identities.

Lieutenant Colonel Hilferty said the two wounded were being treated at the Bagram airbase north of Kabul, the headquarters of the 11,000 US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, and would probably be evacuated to Germany and then repatriated.

Officials said the helicopter belonged to The Louis Berger Group Inc, an engineering firm based in East Orange, New Jersey. The company oversees a wide range of a US-government funded infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

He said the helicopter had flown to Thaloqan - which lies in a restive area where attacks by Taliban rebels are common - without informing the coalition. Afghan authorities made a similar complaint on Sunday.

"They had not done any prior co-ordination, and I think it would be helpful in future if we did co-ordinate," Lieutenant Colonel Hilferty said.

Mike Staples, Louis Berger spokesman in Kabul, said he expected security on the company's projects - including construction of roads, schools and clinics - would be stepped up.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer expressed his sadness at the death of the pilot, who was just three weeks into his job in Afghanistan. "It's very sad that he's gone," Mr Downer said. "He was there to help the people of Afghanistan."

Berger officials said Mr Burdorf was the first person hit when the attacker opened fire. The Briton and Afghan on board the helicopter had returned fire.

Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for the Governor of Kandahar province, said the village was home to members of the Taliban and the Hezb-e-Islami group of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a key Taliban ally.

Abdul Samad, who is one of several men who claim to speak for the Taliban, claimed that guerillas of the hardline Islamic militia were responsible for the attack.

Lieutenant Colonel Hilferty, however, said he thought the attack was carried out by "one bad person" and was not co-ordinated. He urged tribal elders and other locals to hand over the assailant.

He dismissed the recurrent Taliban claims of responsibility after shootings and bombings as "gibberish".

Insurgent attacks in lawless southern and eastern Afghanistan have become commonplace over the past year, despite continuing efforts to hunt down the Taliban and their allies. US military officials say the rebels have started going after "soft" civilian targets after incurring heavy losses in battles with coalition forces in mid-2003.

The attacks appear to be aimed at undermining the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and reconstruction efforts in the country, which is struggling to emerge from a quarter-century of war.